Our lives and the time we are given is a gift, and it is up to us how we make use of such a blessing. We are forced to look in a mirror and examine ourselves when we are posed with questions like, is it worth it how we spend our time? Does what I do with my time really matter? Does how I spend my time honor God? These are key questions we must ask ourselves as we study this topic.
How to Figure Out What You Treasure
For me it can be humbling to look at my day-to-day life and realize how little time I spend actually living for God. Honestly, I have a tendency to live only for the things that please me. There are moments when I’m fully obeying God and living fully for him, but so often I get side tracked and focus on the latest in entertainment. I love reading and typically read three books at once. I’m also a big movie buff. I enjoy going to new movies with my wife, or just watching one from our large collection. I’m not saying books and movies are bad, but too much focus on those things can take my eyes off God.
Sometimes I can wonder why I don’t feel close to God. Sometimes its as simple as you not giving Him an open door. Jesus said in Matthew 6:21 where your treasure is there will your heart be also. A good way for us to tell what we truly treasure in our lives is what do we spend our time on. What we spend the most time on shows what we truly love in this world. So, if someone looked at your life and saw how you spent your time would they see someone who loves God or someone who loves themselves?
How to Live the Most Fulfilling Life
When Jesus was questioned on which is the greatest commandment he said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-39) By saying this Jesus is not just giving us rules to follow, he’s also showing us the way to living the most fulfilled life possible. We are meant to live for more than just ourselves. I truly believe that the only way to have a truly fulfilling life is to follow God with all your heart. Just surrender all of yourself to His will for your life.
In the movie First Knight King Arthur takes Lancelot into the room with the round table. There he tells Lancelot about the very heart of Camelot, “In serving each other we become free.” He tells Lancelot that if you burn Camelot to the ground it would live on because that code would still live in the hearts of Camelot’s people. I would say this is a similar code we must have as Christians, except I would change it so our code is, “In serving God and each other we become free.” Let’s all repent of how we spent our time and our hearts away from God and let’s come back to our first love. If we choose to do so we become free of our own selfish tendencies and live life the way God intended.